EJ Johnson is a 23-year-old style icon, reality star, and son of American basketball legend Magic Johnson. One can’t help but think it’s Johnson’s outré looks–splashed across gossip blogs and tabloids–that are inspiring other young fashionistas to give it their “absolute most,” as he likes to say. Such inspirational fodder will surely be included in Johnson’s forthcoming self-help guide to fashion, dating and personal progression. In the meantime, however, viewers can count on more of Johnson’s outrageous adventures of Rich Kids of Beverly Hills, due out this spring.

2Amanda Hearst

Michael Avedon

“It’s an exciting time to be in the media,” says 32-year-old Amanda Hearst. “I haven’t felt worried at all, seeing how the company is meeting the challenges that the industry is facing and how it’s changing.” She is speaking of the multimedia Hearst Corporation, founded by her ancestor, William Randolph Hearst.

While Hearst has served as a contributor for the company’s various titles (she is currently at Town & Country), she has been busy crafting an identity that remains completely separate from her family legacy, as an environmental activist and sustainable fashion pioneer. “It’s very easy for people to feel overwhelmed with all of the terrible things going on,” says Hearst. “But if you focus your energy on one thing, and figure out how you can help others, that’s how you can make effective change.”

3Nicola and Will Peltz

Michael Avedon

Nicola Peltz, 21, and her older brother Will, 29, are two out of eight in the Peltz family (helmed by Nelson Peltz, founder of the billion-dollar hedge fund firm, Trian Fund Management). Having found support in one another through a shared love of acting, they are the only two from their family to pursue careers as models and actors. Nicola, who starred as Mark Wahlberg’s daughter in the blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction and will be returning to the screen for this year’s Youth in Oregon with Christina Applegate, recognized her passion at an early age: “I started acting when I was 13 and I fell in love with it in school. And Will was the only brother who would help me with lines or reading scripts, every other brother would refuse. I think that’s why he started to like it."

4Alexander and Aila Wang

Michael Avedon

As one of the American fashion’s key players, it’s been up to Alexander Wang for several seasons to keep the style set on its toes. Though it’s his individuality that his followers flock to, there’s a strong family network behind him–one that might someday be passed down to future generations. “I wouldn’t be here without my family and the unconditional support from them,” he says. “I’ve had such a strong support system and I hope to carry that on through my nieces and nephew. I do have a long-term vision for our family-owned brand. I’m 32 and I hope to be doing this for a very long time.” If his 6-year-old niece Aila’s pole-dancer beanie and custom Wang top are any indication, she might make a fine candidate for his successor.

5William, Matthew, and Michael Avedon

Michael Avedon

In fashion and art circles, the Avedon name needs no introduction, but William Matthew, and Michael are writing new chapters to their family’s legacy.

William is a global marketing executive and the first individual to introduce extreme winter sports, like snowboarding, to China. For several years, Matthew was a successful model, which in turn meant months at a time spent alone in airports and hotels. That’s when he first discovered his inner artist by learning to play music. Though his modeling career still creeps up on him now and again, he spends the majority of his time working as a jazz musician.

Michael is the one who is most directly picking up where his legendary grandfather left off: in photography. “He just made a career for himself,” Matthew says. “He just, he came in, took a step up and said, ‘I’m Richard Avedon’s grandson, but that’s not who I am alone.

6Barbara Pierce Bush

Michael Avedon

For the daughter of a former President of the United States, a career in public service seems like an obvious option. Barbara Pierce Bush didn’t just take that option–she flipped the existing model for global health on its head and built a new, effective program from the ground up.

Bush co-founded Global Health Corps in 2009 and now acts as the company’s CEO. Using a model that’s comparable to Teach for America, the organization enlists leaders under the age of 30 from various, often private sector, backgrounds and gives them the tools that will hopefully lead to the reversal of health inequality all over the world. Bush says that she was deeply affected by the injustices she had been exposed to during her world travels as first daughter from 2001–2009. “I think that’s why I ended up in global health,” she says. “But it also very much opened my eyes to so many issues that I’d love to have more time to work on, because I see that as part of my responsibility as being human. Being a woman who was born in the United States, I have access to education and it’s my responsibility to work on the issues I care about."

7Lucky Blue and Daisy Clementine Smith

Michael Avedon

Modeling and music are the Smith family businesses (sisters Piper America–also a model–and Starlie Cheyenne join these two to make their family band, The Atomics) and in 2016 the siblings plan to spend some quality time in the studio. But soon, their chosen career paths may diverge. Lucky Blue, for one, stars in his first film, Love Everlasting, out this summer. “I like it more,” he says of acting. “It’s what I want to do.” Daisy Clementine is also thinking about her future, and points to one of her favorite American icons, a figure she sees as setting an example for how to build a fruitful business from a modelling career: “I respect Tyra Banks,” says Daisy. “I respect a hustler. Being American means I have limitless possibilities if I work hard enough.”

8Kick Kennedy

Michael Avedon

Legacies can be a weighty inheritance, but Kick Kennedy is at ease carrying forth her family commitment to public service. “Every [Kennedy kid]has an innate appreciation for nature and a learned duty to protect it,” says the 27-year-old artist and environmentalist focusing on the global water crisis. Named after great-aunt Kathleen Cavendish, Kick grew up learning about environmental issues from her father, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., president of the Waterkeeper for water preservation. Kick’s work sees her traveling the world to raise awareness on water issues and finds her in such far-flung locales as Mount Kilimanjaro.

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